Something New

It was Tuesday evening and I could feel the nerves kicking in. Any person that I spoke to seemed to have the same response, which was, ‘why are you nervous, this is what you do’. No one seemed to understand that this is not what I do. Since changing career from full time PE teacher, to netball coach, I had worked tirelessly on improving my performance coaching, starting out with a BUCS university side, to now being Head Coach at Swiss U17 level, performance coaching was in my blood. The key words I would use would be drive, determination, perfection, and intensity, this was a whole new ball game.

So to put it into context, Wednesday night was the start of my new venture, instead of having teenage performance athletes, and preparing for high level competition, I was starting a Back to Netball Club, and I had no idea what to expect. I had spent most of Tuesday staring at a blank paper wondering where I would start with my session, let alone the content. How was I going to engage such a wide range of people? To be honest, I couldn’t even work out what that wide range would be.

That night was a rather restless one, a night where coaching drills whirl round your head, what were my aims for the session? potential problems are highlighted, and in the dark of the early hours of the morning, your brain works hard trying to figure out how you will approach things. (I’m sure most coaches have experienced this, although normally I find it more intense after a heavy defeat in performance, not when faced with a first session).

Wednesday morning, I decided it was no use and I was going to have to plan like I would for a first performance session with athletes I did not know. The best place I find to start is Game Understanding and not netball specific as such, but with concepts of, ‘creating space’, ‘shutting down options’ etc. With this in mind my session came together quickly, with the games always being related back to the tactical element which is so paramount in my sport. Reading back through it, it was fun, it was intense and it was engaging… Exactly like a first performance session to gauge where athletes were.

Wednesday evening arrived, driving to venue I questioned myself over and over again, why was I doing this? Why on earth would I take myself so far out of my comfort zone when I was absolutely dreading it? Debating on cancelling, but it was too late, and I didn’t even know who I was contacting to say it was cancelled, I didn’t even know if anyone would turn up. I had done some advertising but who knew if anyone wanted to come?

I know it is probably an old cliche but after the session I remembered what a tutor from sports coach UK said to me on a course. He drew a circle and wrote inside it ‘comfort zone’ and then far away from the circle he wrote, ‘where the magic happens’. (You can find this in images on a search engine). He was absolutely right.

The thing about coaching is it’s actually all about learning, it’s about learning as an athlete (whatever stage you are at), and it’s about learning as a coach. I had my smile on my face, I went with the same energy I would have in any performance setting, and demanded the work rate that the athletes could produce. Admittedly this varied from international level performers but it definitely taught me not to underestimate engaged motivated women, whatever their sporting background. The ladies had me laughing nearly every five minutes and their energy and enthusiasm was infectious, and I couldn’t work out in the end who was motivating who? It was a positive circle of motivation spiralling higher.

As with all coaching I had asked at the beginning that they always give me feedback. Things they enjoyed and things that worked, and things that were not so good for them, plus anything they would like in the future that we may not have done. Now we seem to work together every session, I may be the coach, but I am a mere facilitator tweaking here and there, but they solve the problems, they design their future course and I just guide.

I am and always will be mainly a performance coach, however, I am now a better performance coach because of Wednesday nights with 20 ladies from various different places with different abilities.

So I guess the point I’m trying to make is, there are many different scenarios you can coach in and many different styles you can use in your coaching. Sticking to one scenario and a few styles is staying in your comfort zone, and maybe you may lose a few athletes who do not gel well with that style of coaching. Throwing yourself into unfamiliar territory is scary but can help you refresh your tool box of coaching skills and styles, and even help improve the scenarios you are comfortable in.

Plus you never know how much fun you can have doing it along the way.